VA Gives Rural Vets A Break After ‘Daily Show’ Covers KUOW Story

Gloria Hoeppner holds her VA choice card with her husband Earl Kornbrekke at their home in Friday Harbor, Washington.

KUOW Photo/Patricia Murphy

Twice as many veterans in rural areas will be able to go to a doctor near their home after a policy change made Tuesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The change follows a scathing report less than 24 hours earlier on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," which featured a KUOW story.

The report focused on the Choice Program and an 89-year-old veteran who had difficulty taking advantage of it from her home in Washington state’s San Juan Islands. The program, which was signed into law last summer, was designed to give rural veterans access to local health care so they wouldn't have to travel for hours to the nearest VA facility.

But the rule had its faults, as veterans quickly learned. To see a health care provider nearby, rules demanded that they live more than 40 miles from the nearest facility “as the crow flies.” That made seeing a doctor almost impossible for thousands of veterans who live within that limit but much farther than 40 miles away when roads are considered.

The VA said Tuesday it would now measure the trip by driving miles, as calculated by sites like Google maps.

The rule change is expected to roughly double the number of eligible veterans.

Gloria Hoeppner holds her VA choice card with her husband Earl Kornbrekke at their home in Friday Harbor, Washington.

Credit KUOW Photo/Patricia Murphy

Congress added the 40-mile rule to the Choice Program to keep costs down. VA Secretary Robert McDonald told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last month that relaxing the requirements would likely result in higher costs for the program.

But on Tuesday, McDonald said, “We appreciate the constructive feedback shared by veterans and our partners to help us improve service to veterans.

In Washington state, Sen. Patty Murray had made sure that people who would have to take a ferry to the VA could get care, even if they lived just shy of 40 miles away.

But Gloria Hoeppner, 89, a Navy veteran who lives with her husband in the San Juan Islands, was told she didn’t qualify for care – even though she did. She lives 38 miles from the VA as the crow flies but would have to take a ferry from her home on Friday Harbor, a commute that can take hours.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Gloria Hoeppner's name.

What’s on the bottom of Lake Washington? Listener Merry McCreery wanted to know.

For KUOW Public Radio’s Local Wonder project, I embarked on a strange journey that took me to the heart of this vast lake that separates Seattle from the Eastside. What I learned was astonishing, often gross and, on occasion, heartbreaking.